How ipozin started their web page design journey

Summary

This is a redesign of an existing site. Like our other contests, please no beginners. We encourage only those to participate who have won before or have been the top runners for winning a design contest. We will not post feedback on designs that don't stand a chance. Winner selected has a very strong chance of consistent work from one of LA's top design agencies. Thanks, Good luck!

Company name

see description

What inspires you and how do you envision the design for your business?

Tagline:
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Desired Color Scheme:
see description

Desired Style:
see description

Accepted File Formats:
PSD, JPG

*added 8/18/07 - please read comments by ipozin in the main discussion for better direction - start bottom up

This is a redesign of an existing site. Like our other contests, please no beginners. We encourage only those to participate who have won before or have been the top runners for winning a design contest. We will not post feedback on designs that don't stand a chance. Winner selected has a very strong chance of consistent work from one of LA's top design agencies. Thanks, Good luck!

Current site warmyourfloor.com please see site for overview of company and current design

Redesign the site into a clean, modern, yet professional look (doesnt everyone say that now :) ). Reintegrate all of the current sites content into the redesign.

Design should be for 1024 x 768, so 980px wide.

Inspiration from other sites (the 3 sites below arent great designs at all, more or less, they are competitors people in the same industry):

http://www.nuheat.com not too flashy, clean but a bit on the dated sidehttp://www.thermosoft.com - competitor busy but an idea.http://www.suntouchmats.com the navigational structure for the products (images with few information at first, and then dig-in to more specifics).
Details of the specifics of look and feel of the website are left up to the designer. However, the site must reflect the themes and colors of the product being sold (floor warming products). The site must match the logo in terms of colors (oranges, whites, light browns, yellows).

The home page should have an emphasis on driving customers to the appropriate product. For example, there are two basic types of customers:

The customers that know what specific product they want. These customers should be able to type their product name, or product ID number into the search bar, and instantly get what they want.
The customers that are unsure of what product they want. These customers should be encouraged to purchase Suntouch Mat and NuHeat Mat products (since they have the highest profitability) but also be able to navigate the site easily and ultimately find the product they are comfortable with.

The e-commerce should have a drill down scheme. Drill down being the customers gets to go from broad choices (brands, products) to increasingly specific (sizes, prices), rather than being presented all the information at once.

The sites text content and e-commerce system will be migrated from MC (MonsterCommerce) which the site currently uses to the new design and e-commerce system.

Design Elements:
10 second flash intro, somewhere on the site, prominently displayed. The look of the flash movie should match the look and feel of the site. Possibly positioned in the header. Please design the first frame / idea of the flash for where you intend it to be.

The design that follows is what is currently on the website, but it MUST be changed. The designer is free to use whatever parts of the site they feel work for the design, but on the same hand, the site can be radically different from what it currently is.

The homepage must clearly convey that there are two ways to shop: by product type and by product brand name. Furthermore, there can be a breakdown of interior vs. exterior products.

The following is the old structure of the site. At the very least, the Global Navigation must remain in some fashion. The rest of the tables can be changed, moved around, resized, reshaped, and edited at the designers discretion so long as they follow the above guidelines:

The Products Table displays product images for the main products that warmyourfloor.com is trying to sell. SunTouch products should be prominently displayed here.

The Education table displays links to more information about products available on warmyourfloor.com. This area should be made to be less confusing, possibly with more graphics and less text.

The Center Table displays the information and products based on what the user has selected. Once again the idea is to minimize clutter to the user and to present all products and information in a concise manner.